Tablet Reviews

Android tablets are an endangered species. On one end you have smartphones that are continually growing in screen size but shrinking in bezels, addressing users’ need for more pixels. On the other end you have Chromebooks that can run Android, delivering the productivity that more serious users demand. That said, there are some that believe Android tablets still have a role to play in our digital lives. One of those believers is Chinese manufacturer Chuwi and it is positioning the Chuwi Hi9 tablet as the gaming and multimedia device that no smartphone or Chromebook can beat. We take it for a spin to see how the promises match up to reality.

Microsoft has never had good luck with its own hardware outside of the Xbox. And when it did strike gold, the company may have suddenly decided to take things in a different direction. Rumors of the Surface Pro’s imminent demise and the OEM fallout that might follow has some 2-in-1 fans worried. Fortunately, a rather daring startup based in Finland, once considered the leader in innovation, not only picked up the torch but even did what no OEM would dare do: ask users directly what they wanted. And thus the Eve V was born. And now we get to take a deep look to see if they were able to deliver.

Not too long ago, Microsoft was rumored to be close to retiring the Surface Pro line of 2-in-1 tablets. Although the company denied it, it hasn’t exactly given hard evidence to the contrary either. Fortunately, the basic idea of a Windows tablet that also functions as a laptop as well as a digital canvas has become so popular that OEMs are more than happy to continue its legacy, from giants like HP and Dell to upstarts like Chuwi. The company has just recently shipped the Chuwi SurBook, the product of a very successful Indiegogo run, and we take a hard look at how this Surface Pro-alike fares in the real world.

It's easy to leap to categorizing new products like Apple's iPad Pro 10.5 as either revolutionary or evolutionary. Do they break new, uncharted ground, or are they last year's flagship, polished and refined for another attempt? At first glance, the iPad Pro 10.5's familiar shape makes it easy to conclude evolution, but I'm not so sure.

You wait for one premium 2-in-1 Windows 10 hybrid, and along come a whole selection at once. Samsung is hoping the Galaxy Book 12-inch will catch your eye out of a growing market, promising the latest in digital S Pen technology plus more processing power than you might expect from such a skinny slate. Question is, does the Galaxy Book do enough to warrant its $1,129.99 price tag?

Once upon a time, the big names in the device market tried to put Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows side by side on the same machine. Neither platform maker was happy and the likes of Samsung and ASUS backed out for fear of earning their ire. This gave other smaller players, like Chuwi here, to thrive in a market very few dared. The Chuwi Hi10 Plus represents one of the latest of such devices, combining the power of Windows 10 with the mobility of Android in one affordable package. But how does that tempting promise perform in practice? We take the Chuwi Hi10 Plus for a whirlwind tour to find out.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is the Galaxy Note Tablet that never was. In the best way possible, Samsung has created an Android answer for the iPad Pro. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 has some of the qualities of the Samsung Galaxy Note series - save a couple of the most important features. Where the Galaxy Tab S3 could have excelled above the iPad Pro, Samsung has decided to play it safe. Can Samsung’s newest Galaxy-branded tablet be the high-end tablet-with-stylus Samsung needs to go toe-to-toe with its biggest mobile competitors?

The Wacom Cintiq 27 QHD Touch is what I expected the high end of the digital illustration device world to be. It doesn't feel as "magical" as the iPad Pro, but it's a whole lot more powerful - and professional. It feels like a real professional piece of equipment, something that's been perfected over several iterations - a tool that a top artist would buy again and again. While (as always) there are some changes I might make if I wanted the ideal touch- and pen-friendly display/tablet, at the moment, this is as good as it gets.

Consumers are increasingly gravitating toward so-called "convertible" laptops -- that is, tablets that attach to a keyboard, giving users the best of both worlds. Dell's new XPS 12 is no exception, at least not in terms of its foundational design: it has a folio cover, magnetic keyboard, detachable tablet, and stylus. We've seen all that before, and we'll see it again. The finer details are what makes or breaks a new offering, of course, and so we've spent a couple weeks putting Dell's new two-in-one through the wringer. Spoiler: the results are largely great.

For years, Apple has cornered the market in stylish tablets, but Huawei's MateBook has arrived to steal the iPad's crown. Announced to no shortage of fanfare at Mobile World Congress in February, the MateBook pieces together the style of an iPad Pro, the connectivity of a MacBook, and the flexibility of full Windows 10. Question is, does Huawei's math add up, or is the MateBook too ambitious for its own good?

We have finally come to the end of our long, three-part journey into the relatively unexplored world of Ubuntu Touch devices and the bq Aquaris M10 tablet. We've seen what the hardware is capable of and and we've gotten a glimpse of the future of computing promised by Ubuntu Touch. Now it's time to take stock of it all and answer the most difficult question of all: should you buy this rather piece of equipment that is both unique and ordinary at the same time?

In part one of our rather lengthy review, we took a look at the bq Aquaris M10 Ubuntu tablet's hardware. Suffice it to say, it perfectly played the role of a mid-range tablet. While the device had a few ups, like its lightweight design, bright display, and substantial battery, it would have been easily passed for a mediocre slab if not for the software running on it. In this round, we take a deeper look into what makes this tablet truly one of a kind, and almost literally too. This time, we take a dive into the alien world of Ubuntu Touch.